A piece on how systems change us more than we realize.
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My kids are not misbehaving because they so desire. Or do they? And I am not punishing them because I enjoy torture. Or do I?
We are all victims of the system. We punish, we misbehave, we run wild, and we lose control, because the system so desires. We are all victims of the system.
The Stanford prison experiment was conducted in 1971 to study the causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners. This happened:
The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early, and theentire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days.
These were people who were screened thoroughly to ensure that they were of sound mind and body. These were middle class men, with no history of sadistic or masochistic tendencies, going wild, merely because the situation made them so.
And so, as our students put on their school uniforms, and constantly reminded that they have no freedom, that rules are supreme, and stripped of their individuality, there is no surprise that they rebel. And I, as a teacher, putting on my teaching uniform, see it as my responsibility to quell the rebellion. And so I do things that are unnatural to me, to destroy their hope of challenging the system. So that they obey. So that they follow the system.
How far have I gone, that I have forgotten myself? How far have I changed, that my reflection is a mere stranger that I used to know?
